Until Dawn Review: A Reimagined Plot and Delightful Callbacks

Contents:

• What is the film "Until Dawn" about?
• Familiar references
• How the film tries to scare the viewer
• Controversial points

What is the film "Until Dawn" about?

A year after the disappearance of her sister Melanie (Maia Mitchell), the main character Clover (Ella Rubin) decides to find her at all costs, enlisting the support of four friends - Max (Michael Cimino), Nina (Odessa Ezayon), Abel (Belmont Cameli) and Megan (Yoo Ji-yeon). Their search leads them to an old gas station, where the suspicious owner (Peter Stormare) gives Clover a tip about a strange place where, he says, many people have gone missing.

As is typical of slasher films, the teenagers are not known for their caution. They immediately head in the indicated direction and find themselves in an anomalous zone surrounded by a wall of rain. Inside is a building—the reception center for a local tourist complex. Naturally, the heroes go there and soon realize that they are not alone in this abandoned place.

Suddenly, a seemingly invulnerable maniac with a mining pickaxe appears in the house. He brutally kills the heroes one by one. However, as soon as all five are killed, they find themselves back in the time period when they first arrived. The group is thus trapped in a time loop, and to break it, they will have to somehow survive until dawn or die again and again. But the problem is that the loops are not infinite. With each "resurrection," the heroes' bodies undergo inexplicable transformations...

Familiar References

People familiar with Until Dawn firsthand will immediately understand from the description of the film that Until Dawn does not follow the plot of the game. And in general, to understand the concept of the film, you do not need to know anything about the original source material, much less play it. Nevertheless, the film contains a lot of references to Until Dawn in a new interpretation, skillfully woven into the plot.
Although there are not many key characters, they are largely associated with the characters from the game. For example, Clover can be compared to Sam, and Max - to Mike. As in Until Dawn, the characters often banter with each other, but without excessive vulgarity. Some are prone to betrayal, preferring to flee. But this strategy is futile due to the zone's isolation and the maniac roaming the area.

It's noteworthy that if you look at the film without regard for the source material, you'll notice that, unlike other slashers, the characters evolve. They stop acting rashly, and with each new "reboot," their actions become more coordinated and calculated. Eventually, even characters who initially acted selfishly begin to act in concert with others. As a result, characters that initially seem cliched begin to reveal new sides as the narrative progresses. This changes the overall perception of the slasher film for the better. At the same time, the irony surrounding the murders of hapless characters, which often arises when watching films of this genre, evaporates.
By the way, the image of the mysterious masked killer migrated directly from the game, but now he doesn't just terrify, but cold-bloodedly murders his victims, and in the most sophisticated ways. Plunging a pickaxe into the head, bludgeoning to death, or even slicing in half are quite common for him, not to mention the fact that the heroes can easily lose their lives through their own carelessness. All these scenes look quite realistic; particularly impressionable viewers will surely find them even nauseating. These shots also reference the equally brutal cutscenes depicting the characters' deaths in the game.
The "butterfly effect"—one of Until Dawn's key mechanics—is presented in the film through a time loop. With each new "resurrection," the characters bear traces of their previous deaths in the form of characteristic scars and bruises. In this way, the narrative subtly reminds the characters of their previous decisions. Furthermore, the loop itself is associated with a kind of test: failure results in game over and a subsequent reset, after which the character finds himself back at the starting point. In the film adaptation, the tourist center becomes a kind of game lobby. This concept is largely associated with the principle of many video games, symbolically transferred to the big screen.

Even though the film takes place during the warmer months rather than winter, echoes of the game's story can still be seen, as do elements of mysticism. The ominous mine tunnels still exist beneath the anomalous zone. Fast and dangerous creatures, the wendigo, still hunger for the flesh of survivors, although the story of their origin is presented somewhat differently.
There's also a place for a psychotherapist, who even has a dossier on one of Until Dawn's key characters. The ending itself not only serves as an important reference, but also hints at a possible sequel if the film is successful. And that's not all the well-written details from Until Dawn that players will surely appreciate.

How the film tries to scare the viewer

If we talk about the film from an execution standpoint, then, in addition to the special effects, the direction of the scenes skillfully builds up a tense atmosphere, periodically relieving it with quite appropriate jump scares. In some episodes, the visual and sound accompaniment is designed in such a way as to make the viewer feel uncomfortable. In particularly tense scenes, an ominous silence reigns, contrasting with the sharp sounds.

Such moments include a recreated scene from the game where the main character hides from a wendigo. At one time, particularly enterprising players would simply place the gamepad on a flat surface to prevent their hand from instinctively jerking at the creature's next piercing scream, and the character would die.

Taken together, these first-person fragments evoke the very feeling of discomfort and anxiety that many seek in horror films. It evokes associations with the newsreel footage from the 2005 film "The Grudge," known internationally as Noroi: The Curse. True, in the case of Until Dawn, the quality of filming is much higher: after all, it's not 2005.

Controversial points

Of course, the film has its shortcomings. For example, out of 13 time loop cycles, only a few are shown in the film. Moreover, the transition to the final stage is realized in the form of watching those very same videos from a smartphone. From the outside, this attempt to glue the time gap looks rather crumpled.
The interpretation of the story of the wendigo's appearance in the area is also not very convincing. If in the game people turned into these creatures while being possessed by evil spirits, now such mutations are largely associated with the time loop. In Until Dawn, wendigos were once human, too, but these monsters could be counted on one hand. In Until Dawn, there are so many of them that towards the end, the crowds of these creatures resemble the hordes of the undead in zombie films. Although, to be fair, as in the game, some wendigos retain some vestiges of humanity in their behavior.
In the middle and towards the end, some inconsistencies and questionable decisions can also be noticed. For example, the origin of the other supernatural creatures in the area remains a mystery, as if they were just decoration. Where did the giant wendigo come from in the storm zone? Who is that crazy old woman who zombified Clover with an unknown substance? And in the video on the smartphone, an unnaturally tall man in a mask even appears. All these entities appear suddenly and disappear just as suddenly, and questions about the structure of the local universe continue to mount. And although the film's director, David F. Sandberg ("Annabelle: Creation," "Lights Out"), noted that some phenomena in the film were simply the embodiment of his authorial ideas, while watching the viewer will not be able to find a logical explanation for them.
The main villain turns out to be Dr. Hill, who skillfully disguised himself as the gas station owner. It is noteworthy that Peter Stormare plays this role again, as in Until Dawn. But in the film, the character has lost his former grandeur and dual nature, turning into a banal, albeit cunning villain, who, however, did not expect the most enviable fate due to his own carelessness.

In any case, expecting a deep meaning from such a film is also strange, since it is, first and foremost, a slasher. And in such films, as a rule, many questions arise about the events on screen, but few people seek answers.
"Until Dawn" differs from many films based on video games in that the creators didn't simply copy the source material, but tried to rework the overall concept. For players, the film will be an unusual reimagining with a ton of iconic references. Other viewers will likely appreciate the horror's self-sufficiency, even if they don't understand the game context behind it.

Of course, the film adaptation is not without its flaws, but it's hard to call it completely bad or passable, especially in the context of a film based on a video game. Until Dawn follows the genre's canons and slightly transcends them, thanks to its emphasis on mysticism and surrealism. Perhaps this approach could motivate viewers unfamiliar with Until Dawn to learn more about the original and even play it.